It is known to those skilled in the art that the current machines for steam ironing of socks comprise a plurality of vertical flat shapes on which the socks are manually loaded by an operator, the shapes being associated to corresponding driving means to allow the transit and the temporary dwell thereof in a steaming and pressing chamber to operate the ironing thereof.
It is also known that the dry ironing of the socks is carried out directly on the relevant vertical support shapes, which are electroheated.
It is further known that, upon completion of the ironing, the socks are either manually or automatically picked up and then stacked for packaging. In order to automatically stack the thus ironed socks an apparatus is known comprising a clamp for the withdrawal of the socks and the subsequent lying thereof on a corresponding dwell plane able to form an abutting element for an oscillating plate operating the pressing of the socks laid down thereon.
However, the operation of fitting the socks to be ironed on the relevant support shapes takes place with difficulty inasmuch as the shapes are disposed in a vertical position both during the fitting operation and the subsequent stages of the ironing process, so that also the inspection of the socks for the detection of possible faults is not easily performed. In addition to this, there is the fact that the separation of the faulty socks from the integral ones is not automatic and, therefore, the operator must withdraw the faulty socks from the relevant support shapes prior to the ironing of the socks, thereby consuming some of the time for the loading of the other shapes of the machine and thus reducing its output capacity. Alternatively, an ancillary operator must be put in charge of the operation for the withdrawal of the faulty socks, which implies a higher cost of the finished socks. Besides, these known machines do not allow the stacking of any preset number of ironed socks as the lowering of the above mentioned pressing plate is heavily hindered by the thickness of the same socks being stacked in case the latter are present in large quantity.